We sold off the last of our pigs yesterday, and in their honor I’m re-publishing a post I wrote about them last summer: When they are a few weeks old, the males get castrated so you don’t have to look at this all the time:
The Pigs
There are two resident pigs here on the ranch.
The one on the left is “Miss Piggy”, (quite an original name) and the one on the right is “Huey”.
Huey is quite the affectionate mate.
Look at him loving on Miss Piggy.
And still, loving on Miss Piggy. Get a room, you two.
The female pig is a Sow, and the male pig is a Boar. There are a few main differences between the Sow and the Boar. As you may have noticed, the Sow is often smaller in stature. Also, the Sow has 12 to 14 “teats” and can have just as many piglets, because she has two uteri. Each piglet claims its own teat which is why, if there are more piglets than teats, you will have a runt.
The gestational period for pigs is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. How can we know just exactly when she conceived, anyway? Well, pigs make an awful racket when they, um, do it, so it’s pretty hard to miss. A few days before she’s due, we put the Sow into the farrowing crate, pictured here. The whole idea is to keep the Sow from rolling over on the piglets with her big ol’ behind, while affording the piglets ample room to nurse. The piglets stay in a pen with their mama, until they are ready to be sold.
Because, don’t you think one pair of those is enough? No wonder he’s so affectionate.
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We loved raising pigs, but we decided to scale back on some of our animals. We are beyond busy, and these days raising pigs takes a whole lot of work.
See, here in California, Prop 2 was passed back in November (and before you go getting offended, I voted YES on Prop 2 for the benefit of the poor, cramped chickens) and it outlawed the use of farrowing crates with pregnant pigs. I wish they had restricted the number of days rather than eliminating them altogether.
I understand it’s unhealthy for a pregnant Sow to be in a farrowing crate for a long time. But 2 or 3 days before giving birth, and 2 days after while she and the piglets gain strength? Not so unreasonable, if you ask me. I mean, look at most women in labor and delivery units – can they stand up, turn and wander around?
Since it’s just the two of us and our kids, we can’t keep a constant watch on the Sow. When she was close to ready this last time, we prepared a small pen for her, as was recommended. But since she gave birth in the middle of the night, no one was there to move the piglets out of the way.
By the time we got out there in the morning, we discovered a distraught Sow who had squashed and killed all but 3 of the piglets. One of whom had been partially squashed and lost the use of his hind legs. A fun way to start the morning, no?
Needless to say, raising pigs has become both unprofitable for us as well as extremely heartbreaking.
Sayonara, Miss Piggy and Huey. I’m glad I didn’t eat you.
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4 replies on “Mmmmmmm, Bacon”
That is a bummer. Those pigs look like fun to raise. And the piglets? Too cute. My Seesa would LOVE it at your house!
That was interesting, informative and hilarious. Except the part about the squashed piglets. It sucks when well intentioned laws are too broad!
Two uteri! Look at those balls! Ah, poor piggly-wigglies. Interesting post.
Between my husband and I, we’ve raised several Blue Butts, Yorks, Hamps, Landrace and Durocs. Seeing your photos makes me miss those days. 🙂